


Nothing

by caprithebunny



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Deathfic, F/F, Hurt, Mass Effect 2: Lair of the Shadow Broker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-19
Updated: 2018-05-19
Packaged: 2019-05-08 22:46:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14704029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caprithebunny/pseuds/caprithebunny
Summary: Things weren't supposed to happen this way. The mission was supposed to be hard and dangerous, yes, but not this. This was not in the description.





	Nothing

Shepard had had one hell of a ride with Liara, starting deep in a Prothean ruin. The race to stop Saren had been stressful, exhausting, and the very reason they met in the first place. Holding Liara as her mother breathed her last breath and then, later, being there for her as she dealt with her loss… Shepard hadn’t thought anything would come from their friendship due to how different they were, but she was wrong (very happy to be  _ wrong _ , in fact). It had felt like a whirlwind romance only told in movies and those old world romance novels, and they both cherished every moment spent together. The night before Ilos… That would be forever imprinted into Shepard’s mind. The way Liara looked at her,  _ touched  _ her, the soft glow the low lighting gave her blue skin. If anything was real in Shepard's mind, it was that night, the two of them entangled in one another, and the short time after in the afterglow. 

 

After Saren and Sovereign went down, and then Shepard herself with the Normandy SR-1, she disbelieved much of anything after could be real. Hell, she was rebuilt from the ground up, in some Cerberus facility by a genetically ‘perfect’ woman; then, she gets supplied with anything she wanted or needed and is given dossiers of some of the baddest people in the galaxy? Couldn't be real.

 

And Liara.  _ Liara. _ She was so different. No longer the shy, naive researcher; instead, she was a badass who wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty. Surely, that wasn’t real… Liara wasn’t cold or willing to have civilians caught in the crossfire. Maybe the part about Liara giving her body to Cerberus for the chance of Shepard coming back  _ could  _ be believable. Maybe. No.  _ No, nothing is real and this is all a nightmare she’ll wake up from soon… Right? _

 

And the  _ Shadow Broker _ … No one had information on him.  _ No one _ . So that had to be all a big mistake and some sort of misunderstanding. She was not here,  _ no, no, no… _

 

_ “Liara, are you sure about this? Is this really his… its’ lair?” Her baby blue eyes looked dead into Shepard’s; there was no doubt there, only determination and… fear. Shepard felt a pang of protectiveness at that; although she wanted to comfort her, she knew Liara needed to be strong, just as she did. And so, the two of them, along with Garrus, jumped down onto the gargantuan ship, and proceeded further in.  _

 

Shepard looked around at the chaotic mess surrounding her. Only forty minutes ago they had landed on the Shadow Broker’s ship, and in forty minutes things had went from bad to… what they were now. 

 

_ They were just outside of the main room of the lair now. Shepard's heartbeat thudded in her ears, and her breathing was hard to manage. There was no telling what was waiting for them on the other side. Liara looked back at her one last time, her face serious and restrained. With a nod from Shepard, she went first into the room, Garrus behind them both. The Shadow Broker sat behind a large desk, littered with terminals, papers, datapads… It was very eerily like a mafia boss’s desk in those old world vids. The only visible part of the Broker was its hulking, massive form, and some odd glittering around what should be the lower mouth. Its breathing was loud and raspy, as though it only had a mouth to breathe out of.  _

 

What was it he had said to them? She'd been too worked up, too nervous, and too worried to truly listen. No matter how hard she tried to remember, it was just more white noise. The fight though… she remembered well.

 

_ The Broker roared as he stood. He easily towered over all three of them, even Garrus. The glinting around his face was his  _ **_teeth_ ** _ ; his mouth opened in three directions, and all Shepard could think was if he got ahold of one of their heads… they’d be dead. Hell, if he got ahold of one of them  _ **_period_ ** _. _

 

_ He slung his desk at them, and it knocked Garrus against a wall. He lay there, out cold, unaware of just how bad things were about to get. Liara shouted to Shepard about keeping him busy while she figured something out, and well, Shepard tried her best; playing chicken with something three times your size wasn't easy. _

 

_ After getting thrown through three pillars, breaking a foot under one of his crushing blows, and a punch to the ribs she was sure had, at the very  _ **_least_ ** _ , bruised them, Liara had a plan. She motioned to an odd, dome-like structure on the ceiling that had white plasma-like… stuff in it. Shepard took the hint and went to lure the Broker under it after he got to his feet; however, he had other plans. He looked for Shepard, made like he was going after her, but then pirouetted on one of his feet and charged Liara. She wasn’t ready; her focus had been on the dome… and not him. His shield configured itself into a blade-like form, and with a roar of victory, he used it like one. He, in only a few seconds, went from having it attached to one arm to having it in his hands, and then… it was through her abdomen and onward into the floor. Shepard watched in dumbfounded horror as she cried out, her indigo-violet blood seeping from around the blade. Frozen, Shepard made no attempts to defend herself as he came charging for her next, and would likely have died… had not two concussive shots rang out, breaking the glass holding that plasma-fluid was in. It poured down onto the Broker as he ran under it, the whole dome fully bursting and he disintegrated into nothing but ash, a single surprised cry leaving him.  _

 

_ Yet, Shepard heard none of this. Her eyes were simply locked on Liara, and suddenly she was by her side, a sharp, throbbing ache emanating from her broken foot. Tears flowed down her face, hot and burning, as she carefully looked at what was done to the love of her life. The blade was deep completely through her midsection, spine included. A pool of blood was already forming around her, staining both her and Shepard’s armor. There was no saving her, and as that thought slowly ate its way into her head, Shepard’s tears came faster, her heart clenching in her chest as though a clawed hand had torn its way to it. She gently framed Liara’s face between her hands as those blue eyes slowly raised to look at her, tears pouring from them. Shepard saw her reflection within them, as well as indescribable fear and agony. Liara was trembling, including her lips, which seemed unable to figure out what expression they wanted.  _

 

_ “Shep… ard…” She coughed loudly several times, blood spraying out of her mouth.  _ **_She was dying, and there was nothing they could do_ ** _. One of her hands came up and curled weakly in Shepard’s hair, trying to pull her closer. Their foreheads leaned together, and a wet, wracking sob left Shepard’s chest, a deep-seated pain throbbed through her entire body.  _

 

_ “Oh, God, Liara. I love you. I’m so sorry. So so sorry…” Shepard heard a rasping, gurgling noise from her lover, like she was trying to say something, but there was too much blood. Shepard pulled away, trying to look into her eyes, which were widened as she tried to speak but only more gurgling and blood came. Garrus was then there, his eyes trying to find some some way to free her, his hands trying to help her.  _

 

_ “Spirits… I don’t…” He trailed off as her eyes dulled, sliding mostly closed, and that hand in Shepard’s hair fell to her shoulder, the fingers still curled as they had been.  _

 

_ None of this could be real. None of it _ . Shepard had kept whispering that to herself as Garrus had removed the blade holding Liara’s lifeless body pinned to the floor. She whispered it as he caught her and gently laid her in Shepard’s arms, his voice nothing but white noise compared to the thoughts and buzzing in her ears. She whispered it as she held Liara to her, the sobs coming more frequently and harder as she stroked her cooling face, only able to cry as she felt more footsteps approach. Nothing could be real; nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing…

  
**_Nothing_ ** .

**Author's Note:**

> Welp. This hurt me real bad, so we can all suffer together.


End file.
